She Will Always Make That Choice
by Argyle.S
Summary: Kara has already made this choice. Kara will always make this choice.


Kryptonite canons. Force fields. Red sun lamps. Lena was prepared for Kara's attack on her base, and Kara wasn't surprised. Lena was brilliant, but in the end, it didn't matter. Lena didn't understand what was happening. Not really. For Lena this was still a game, a way to punish Kara. Lena didn't understand Kara. She never had. No matter how many times Kara had tried to explain it to her, tried to tell her. Lena didn't understand the difference between them. She didn't understand that this wasn't a game to Kara.

Lena didn't understand that Kara had made her choice years ago, in a bar, when she heard that a plane was having engine trouble. She didn't understand that Kara had made her choice years ago, when she had fought Vartox in the desert, when had told James not to call Kal-El for help with Reactron, when she had fought Astra in the skies about National City, when she has carried Myriad into the sky, when she had stood in an alien prison with no powers and told the slavers she wouldn't let them hurt anyone, when she had activated the lead dispersal device, when she had fought Reign, when she had gone back in time to save Mon-El, Alura and Sam, when she had faced down Agent Liberty, and Red Daughter and Lex Luthor. Kara had made her choice. She would always make her choice.

By the time she reached the lab, she was hurt and bleeding, but Lena's defenses were destroyed. The Kryptonite canons nothing but ruins, the red sunlamps smashed, the force fields overloaded. It didn't matter. Her powers were intact, and she was still on her feet. She'd won, even if victory left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Stop," Eve said. Kara looked at her, looked down the barrel of the gun at the glowing green bullets. It was a fight not laugh, because this was a problem she'd solved years ago. Eve screamed in pain as Kara blasted the gun with her heat vision, leaving it too hot to touch. The gun hit the ground a second later, and Eve stumbled back, her palms burn and blistered. Kara turned towards her goal, towards Lena.

"It's over, Lena," she said.

Lena looked up at her. "No, it's not," she said. She touched a button, and a force field snapped into existence between them. "I'm going to make the world better, and you're not going to stop me."

"Lena, please, don't do this," Kara said.

"Why wouldn't I? I can end pain. End suffering. No human would ever hurt another human again. No one would ever lie again," Lena said.

"You're taking away their free will," Kara said. "It's wrong."

"It's wrong to stop them from hurting each other the way you hurt me?" Lena asked.

"Lena, I never wanted to hurt you," Kara said. "I don't want to hurt you now. But I can't let you do this."

"You can't stop me," Lena said. "It will take you hours to get through that force field."

"You're wrong, Lena. I can stop you. Don't make me."

Lena turned back to the console where she was working on bringing Myriad online again.

"I really should thank you," Lena said. "If you hadn't betrayed me, if you hadn't violated my trust, I might never have realized what I could do. But in a few minutes, the entire human race will be better than they age."

"Will you be better too?" Kara asked.

Lena looked up at her, and her face answered the question without Lena having to say a word.

"Lena, please. I love you. Don't make me stop you."

"You love me?" Lena asked. "That's rich. If you loved me so much, why did you lie to me for years? Why did you betray me, hurt me, humiliate me? I murdered my brother for you!"

"I know," Kara said. "But what I said at the Pulitzer ceremony was the truth. I was afraid. You were my friend, and I didn't want to lose you. Please don't make me lose you now."

"You lost me the moment you lied to me," Lena said.

"Please, Lena. It's not to late. Stop. Please."

Lena ignored her and went back to work.

Kara closed her eyes for a moment, as she made her choice. The same choice she'd always made. The same choice she would always make.

"Last chance, Lena," Kara said as she opened her eyes. "Please, stop."

Lena looked up at her, and just for a moment, Kara hoped, but Lena looked back down at the console.

The blast of heat vision was short. A bit longer than it would have been had the force field not been there, because the force field was blocking the infra-red wavelengths, but the visible light that passed through the force field carried more than enough energy. The explosion that followed was shorter, but cataclysmic. The power in the capacitor banks fueling the force field released all at once. Millions of joules of energy were released into the room in an explosion that would have taken almost a hundred pounds of C4 to achieve.

It's almost an hour later when Alex finds her, standing in the crater that used to be Lena's lab. She's filthy, and the only part of her that isn't covered in dust and ash and soot are the tear tracts on her cheeks.

"What happened?" Alex asked.

"She wouldn't stop," Kara said. "I had to make a choice."

Kara can see the understanding in Alex's face. The conversation they had, after Mon-El and the lead dispersal device. Kara made that choice, to put protecting the Earth over protecting the person she loved. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't. Now, she'd made it again. Because she would always make that choice. No matter what it costs her.


End file.
